For our Russian friends , I am searching updated details on this low level raid by Russian Naval Air Fleet 36 MTAP 7 x A-20B torpedo bombers from Gelenjik to Constanza harbour Romania on early morning of Sept 28 ,1943 which ended up in a failure and award of 3 HSU gold stars to the pilots and navigators . I have most of the details , however possibly Russian Fed of today is proposing an other posthumous HSU order to one of the pilots KIA at Constanza who was also a former test pilot at Petlyakov Factory in Irkutsk.

Are you sure A-20B? Soviets mentioned 7 A-20G planes with 3 lost over the target. Other missions also mention Gs from the same time period. I have a few assigned A-20G serial numbers (and photos) for the 36 MTAP, but no A-20B among them.

According Opersvodka ---- 1 crew fought on the ground with their weapons after forced landing refusing to surrender to a Romanian / German AA gun battery and were shot by gun fire ...no award was ever given to them as Kapitan Pervey Ranga Bizinashvili who received only RB despite his Taran on a Romanian tank farm...both buried in Constanza Naval cemetery with a modest stone grave as such died unknown.

Note the Russian Navy Opersvodka mention A-20J and not G .....Irronically the raid leader
like in similar cases with Army Air Corps pilots who flew to Romanian targets or fell captive to the
Romanians was later on MIA on Korean conflict over Pacific when his IL-28 torpedo bomber vanished.

Read the background story on Bizinashvilli, Fokin and Gen.Tokarev (then Col ) who elected Fokin as leader instead
of Bizinashvilli- I tried many years to get hold of the Recon photos shot by Maslov's crew though nobody seems to
have them .

'А-20Ж' marked the A-20G model in Russian records while B-3 ~mainly the A-20C. The A-20J model came later, especially in Soviet service, so they were not flying the Sept .28, 1943 mission to Rumania for sure. They were all A-20Gs and probably A-20Cs. So far I saw only these two models in 36 MTAP stuff. Any data on the AC serials of these 7 planes during the mission?
Gabor